Various Questions RE: Virtual Online Services

[1wsfl]

Hi all!

First, let me thank you in advance for your assistance. Your time and expertise is greatly appreciated!

I would like to start a new business relatively soon. I would like to provide Internet based virtual services, starting with remote desktop techinical support. For the time being, I will not be opening an office (I plan on working from home) and I will be the sole owner and operator of this business. I currently have a full time job and a family at home. I am going to maintain my full time job and attempt to operate this business on the side, primarily by contracting the work out. Because I have many bills to pay and children to feed, quiting my job (at least at this point) is not a risk I can take.

With that being said, I have some questions:

1) I am unable to dertermine if LLC or S-corp is the best way to go? From my research, it seems that operating as an LLC would probably meet the needs of my business and myself best. I am primarily interested in the liability protection against my personal assests and tax advantages. I will not be borrowing any money or taking out any loans and will be the sole owner of the buisness. I was just wondering if anyone has any recommendations regarding this?

2) I am planing on using my last name in my business name and my understanding is that I will not need to register the business name in the fictious name database of my state. My question is concerning the sub names under my primary business name. For example, lets say my business name is "John Doe Consulting, LLC" and I decide to launch multple websites like domainnameex.com, anotherdomainnameex.com, etc., will I have to register those names in the database or notify the state of these names? My assumption is yes, but I just wanted to understand that process.

3) I plan on providing virtual Internet-only services at a national level. Is there anything I need to be aware of or cautious of in regards to laws, taxes, etc.?

4) A majority of the work will be contracted to people I know, and perhaps some I don't. If I contract work out should I restrict it to people within my state? Will contracting someone in another state to perform virtual work cause some chaos for me in the sense of taxes/laws?

I reside in the state of Florida, btw.

These are some of the burning questions I have for the time being. Again, thanks for your help and assistance. I hope that I can help you down the road. :)

[cbscreative]

First of all, welcome. We have members here who can answerr your accounting and legal questions, but I will take on the domain question. No, you do not have to register those the same as a business name. You could be John Doe Inc and have a web site that is bertspartysupplies.com and you would only need to have John Doe Inc as your legal business name.

You do however register domain names with a source such as GoDaddy, and you can use your business name in the registration info as the owner of that domain. Unless you are also a web designer, you will want to have a pro helping you with this part of your business.

A couple areas of caution, DO NOT use the same source for domain registration and hosting. IOW, GoDaddy is a good source for the domain, but you should choose another source for hosting even though GD offers hosting. And I believe it's a good idea not to use a web designer who also hosts your site either. If something ever goes wrong in a business relationship, you wnat to be able to walk away free. Having an "all in one" solution could cause you to get held hostage. I'm not saying will, but why make yourself vulnerable?

Congrats on your decision to go into business. In a few years, you will either never do it again, or, more likely, you will never look back.

BTW, because of the web, your clients do not have to be local or ever met face to face. Stick around. we have several VA's already on this forum, and they will be able to help you a lot too.

[1wsfl]

First of all, welcome. We have members here who can answerr your accounting and legal questions, but I will take on the domain question. No, you do not have to register those the same as a business name. You could be John Doe Inc and have a web site that is bertspartysupplies.com and you would only need to have John Doe Inc as your legal business name.

You do however register domain names with a source such as GoDaddy, and you can use your business name in the registration info as the owner of that domain. Unless you are also a web designer, you will want to have a pro helping you with this part of your business.

A couple areas of caution, DO NOT use the same source for domain registration and hosting. IOW, GoDaddy is a good source for the domain, but you should choose another source for hosting even though GD offers hosting. And I believe it's a good idea not to use a web designer who also hosts your site either. If something ever goes wrong in a business relationship, you wnat to be able to walk away free. Having an "all in one" solution could cause you to get held hostage. I'm not saying will, but why make yourself vulnerable?

Congrats on your decision to go into business. In a few years, you will either never do it again, or, more likely, you will never look back.

BTW, because of the web, your clients do not have to be local or ever met face to face. Stick around. we have several VA's already on this forum, and they will be able to help you a lot too.

Thank you for the quick and excellent feedback cbscreative!

I am familiar with coding in HTML and PHP, so I will be handling the website portion of everything. I will probably go with a host that offers cpanel with the ability to install scripts/engines and just modify it's code to meet the needs of the business and speed things up. Good advice in regards to keeping my hosting company separate from my domain provider. I'll be sure to do that.

[Harold Mansfield]

Regarding the website/domain registration, I actually do things the opposite way.
I register all of my domains in my name. Since I am a one man show, I keep my domain portfolio separate from my services since they are not related and at any time any or all of any domains that I have accumulated are for sale at any given time.

I also keep all of my other accounts such as affiliate accounts in my own name as a private entity.
It's just a personal choice for me, but since 1st Internet Media ( my wordpress services and support) has nothing to do with any other site that I publish, I see no reason to include them under an umbrella because if 1st Internet Media goes belly up or gets sued, my privately owned domains and websites have nothing to do with it and vise-versa .

Each website or domain that I own stands alone with the only connection being a little tag on each one that it was built by me at 1stIM.

[Evan]

S-Corp vs LLC -- there are a lot of threads on this forum about that here. I know David (BusinessAttorney) and I have addressed it quite a bit, offering both of our perspectives from the accounting and legal aspects. LLC's are the "new" thing on the block, and get a bunch more attention.

I generally don't recommend S-Corps unless you plan on having a net income of at least $50,000 or higher (as a general rule). If you plan on having a lot of losses, an LLC is the way to go as you have more ways to show you constructively have basis for the losses. I am also cautious about LLCs electing to be taxed as an S-Corp without knowing all the facts. (For example, I'd never recommend an LLC taxed as an S-Corp in Massachusetts.)

You do not need to register "domainname.com" as a fictitious business name with the state, unless you plan on doing business as that domain name strictly. Which I doubt. Most companies just use a domain as a way to get people to see their business, and sometimes it's just a clever marketing campaign.

As for laws pertaining just to FL, I do not know. Doing something online is pretty common. If you are selling things, and it subject to sales tax, make sure you collect it from Florida residents. Otherwise, you won't have issues with out of state contractors.

[BBPO]

Are you currently working full-time from home?

If not, you wouldn't be able to offer your services during the day (assuming your employer would not want you spending company time running your own business). That is a HUGE chunk of the market you want to reach (people do not assume they can get tech support at night). I'm sure you'd agree, but people want issues resolved right away--either that, or you'd have to offer a low, low price to entice people to wait for you to come home and start working on the problem.

Also, not devoting 100% of your efforts to your business is risky in itself. Many businesses fail from various issues, one of them being not spending all your time on the venture.

Just words of caution. I am NOT saying you SHOULDN'T start this business. I'm not doubting your intent to help people and providing great service. What I'm trying to say is, if you are truly wanting to do this, you have to consider many factors and jump in all the way. Trying to do this on the side will only get you 'friends and family' as clientele.

I hope you take this constructively. Take care, and good luck.